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It is a positive article in a magazine that Donald Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The front-page image, the president decreed, ""could be the worst ever".

Time's praise to the president's involvement in brokering a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a photo of the president shot from a low angle while the sun shining from the back.

The outcome, the president asserts, is ""extremely poor".

"Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", the president posted on Truth Social.

“My hair was erased, and then there was an object above my head that seemed like a floating crown, but very tiny. Really weird! I have never liked being captured from low angles, but this is a extremely poor image, and it should be denounced. What is their goal, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to appear on Time’s cover and achieved this multiple times in the past year. The preoccupation has made it as far as Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers on display at several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was taken by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

The perspective was unflattering to Trump’s chin and neck – an opportunity that California governor Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the criticized section obscured.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal might turn into a signature achievement of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defense of Trump's image has been offered by a surprising origin: the spokesperson at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to denounce the "revealing" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a photo reveals far more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have selected such an image", she posted on the messaging platform.

"And given the complimentary photos of Biden that that magazine used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the case is self-damaging for the publication", she noted.

The answer to the president's inquiries – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a feeling of authority according to Carly Earl, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The photograph technically technically is good," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their grandeur and his expression actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

The president's hair looks erased because the sunlight behind him has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she adds. And, while the article's title pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being photographed from below, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are highly effective, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The publication reached out to the periodical for comment.